It was Christmas Eve, and Jenn Suhr had just finished a workout in the tin pole-vaulting hut outside her home near Churchville. Rick Suhr, her husband and trainer, pulled her aside when she got to the house. They had company. He didn't want to cause a scene, but Rick had big news. The Track & Field News rankings were out. Jenn was No. 1 in the world.

Jenn hugged her husband. Then she went alone into another room and began crying her eyes out. How many people ever know how it feels to be the best in the world at any one thing? For nearly eight years, she and Rick had worked for this moment. Now, finally, she was the top women's vaulter on the planet.

"It was just such an emotional thing," Suhr (formerly Stuczynski) said Wednesday. "It was shocking, rewarding, humbling, everything all at once. It's an incredible accomplishment, a goal we set together at the start. I can always find ways to motivate myself, but it was honestly a great motivator."

Rick told Jenn she had the potential when she became serious about the pole vault in the spring of 2004. Jenn is 6-feet tall, a former basketball star at Roberts Wesleyan College. She had the body for it. Best of all, she had the will. Rick said if she dedicated herself and learned the proper technique, there was no telling how high she could go.

Jenn kept lists along the way. When she surpassed a certain height, she would cross a woman off the list. By the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, the only name yet to be crossed off was Russia's Yelenba Isinbayeva, the best women's vaulter of all time.

Isinbayeva beat Suhr in China. Suhr got a silver medal and a stern admonition from Rick, who told her, in front of the Olympic TV cameras and millions of viewers, what she had done wrong and what she needed to do if she wanted to beat the Russian.

"I took tremendous criticism for it," Rick said. "But almost everything that was said on that video has come through."

Jenn has the world's top three jumps over the past two years. She won her 10th national title at the U.S. indoor championships last February. She was fourth in the World Championships in Korea. She finally beat her rival, Isinbayeva, while finishing first in a star-studded field at the Diamond League final in Zurich last September.

That earned her the coveted title of No. 1 in the world. Just think what she might have accomplished if she had actually been healthy. Suhr achieved her No. 1 ranking after the most difficult season of her career, a physical ordeal that saw her diagnosed with celiac disease, an autoimmune disorder caused by a reaction to gluten.

"The significant thing is she was ranked No. 1 and was 80 percent," said Rick Suhr (pronounced 'sure'). "She had three or four injuries in outdoor season. No one will ever know how physically beat up she was. She was never healthy. I remember her saying before the final in Zurich, which had the best eight jumpers in the world, 'I can beat maybe two of these girls.'

"Her celiac is a non-stop problem with cramping. Your body becomes depleted, to the point where you can't run anymore. It's always an issue when you travel, changing your diet.

"Her back was really bad before the Worlds," he added. "She was sick for about 10 days in Korea. I don't know how Jenn made a bar. She got to the final and was fourth. That's what separates her from other athletes. She's just so competitive. Everybody knows that when she and Isinbayeva show up, they've got to be on their game."

Suhr is on her game now. She's healthy, for one thing. She's thankful for the terrific gluten-free section at Wegmans. Jenn does the cooking, so Rick is following a fairly gluten-free diet, not entirely of his own choice.

"Yeah, I feel good right now," she said. "I feel healthy. I was just telling Rick, 'I think this is the best and strongest I've felt.' I'm excited to get back out and compete. I'm also anxious to see what can happen. My strength level is so good, I have a weird kind of anxiety right now. I'm anxious to see what happens. I'm eager to get on the indoor track and see how it feels."

On Saturday night, Suhr opens the track and field season in the U.S. Open at Madison Square Garden in New York City. She has competed there many times and it's a special place for her for Rick. He named his teenaged son, Madison, after the famed arena.

Next month, she'll jump in the famed Millrose Games, which have moved from the Garden to The Armory in New York.

Rick says most pole vaulters tend to peak at 30 or 31. Jenn will hit the big 3-0 on Super Bowl Sunday. She says she's not close to peaking, though.

"No, not at all," she said. She said it's like a golfer who uses a 9-iron to hit shots that once required a 7. "I'm actually improving. I'm becoming more powerful. It's not like I've been vaulting my whole life. I haven't. So my body hasn't taken that physical beating. I'm still on the upscale."

She hopes that's the case when the London Olympics roll around. The Opening Ceremonies are six months from today. Suhr has to qualify (don't get Rick started on the folly of putting the top U.S. track athletes through qualifying), but the excitement of another Olympics is building.

Suhr will be one of the big names among the Americans. Last week, she was in Miami to film a watch commercial with swimmer Michael Phelps and sprinter Tyson Gay. Regrettably, most Americans pay attention to track and field only during the Olympics. It's not being No. 1 in January that matters, but winning gold in August.

"When the Olympics come, there's a lot of pressure," Jenn said. "You feel it, but you also place pressure on yourself. I learned from the last Olympics that when I discuss it, I talk on a very surface level, where it's a fact. I can't let it get to that emotional point."

But the Olympics are more emotional? "Yes and no," she said. "I think it's more emotional because of all the history surrounding it. But there are a lot of other experiences that are just as good as winning a silver medal.

"I don't want to rush it," she said. "It's going to be here soon enough."

jsullivan@buffnews.comnull